1 dr. andreas kossak, hamburg, d road pricing / congestion pricing germany / europe background +...

1Dr. Andreas Kossak, Hamburg, D

Road Pricing / Congestion PricingGermany / Europe

Background + Update

TRB Congestion Pricing CommitteePortland / Oregon

April 29, 2015


Background / Basics

Fuel- and vehicle-taxes are federal taxes in Germany; the revenue amounts in total to significantly more than double the actual net-expenses for the whole road sector in Germany.

According to German law these taxes are (like in nearly all other European countries) “common” taxes. As such they are liable to the so called “Non-Affectation-Principle”.

Common taxes are basically part of the general budget. Earmarking of the revenue for certain purposes is possible, however can be canceled whenever wanted or needed.

Earmarking of road-vehicle related taxes for the road sector is the absolute exception all over Europe.


From Euro-Vignette to Pällmann-Commission

Direct road user charging was first introduced in Germany (together with 4 (5) other EU-members) in 1995 (/6) based on the “Euro-Vignette”.

The revenue from the Vignette was not earmarked for transportation infrastructure-related purposes - thus violating the national regulations regarding the use of charges or fees.

In 1999 the Federal Government decided changing to distance-related tolling HGV’s using Autobahns (about 12,000 km) effective Jan. 1, 2003; it was finally introduced an Jan. 1, 2005

Facing fast deteriorating conditions of the transportation infrastructure, in fall 1999 the Federal Government appointed a

high-ranking Expert-Commission on “Financing the Transport Infrastructure” – the so called “Pällmann - Commission”.


Pällmann-Commission

Basic findings: The situation of the German transportation infrastructure is to be characterized by a yet latent severe maintenance crisis and numerous bottlenecks.

Conclusion: The traditional tax-financing has proven to be by far not suitable to assure a qualified maintenance and development of the transportation infrastructure.

Recommendation: Gradual change to financing the transportation infrastructure by the direct user and / or the profiteer and/ or the causer - as far as possible with regard to the single infra-sectors.

The commission recommended limiting any additional burden of the road users to the compensation of the gap between the money needed for settling the problems and the actual budget / budget plans.


Germany - Federal Highways from tax-financing to user-financing

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internal costs Toll

Trucks ≥ 12 t BAB

Trucks < 12 t BAB

Cars BAB

Trucks ≥ 12 t B

Trucks < 12 t B

Cars B

Transaction-costs

Financing gap

Budget

Compensation tax : toll = 1:1

Costs

Revenue

Pällmann - Commission

Principle of the paradigm-shift based on figures as of 2000


Distance-related HGV-tolling

The introduction of the distance-related charging heavy trucks finally started on January 1, 2005.

The toll operator is Toll Collect – a joint venture of Daimler-Benz, the German Telekom and the French Cofiroute.

In the last Vignette-year the revenue has been about 500 million Euros. In the first year of distance-based tolling it was 2.86

billion Euros; in 2014 it reached 4.6 billion Euros.

The tolling system works highly reliable (99,9 %) and environmentally efficient.

The revenue from the truck tolling was only partly - and over and above only formally - used for the road infrastructure.

In reaction on that, the public acceptance of direct road pricing converted to strong resistance.


share of emission classes Jan. 2005

Euro 5, EEV 1: 0.2%

Euro 4: 0.9%

Euro 3: 62.4%

Euro 2: 32.8%

Euro 0 + 1: 3.7%

Toll Collect – Environmental efficiency

The share of trucks complying with the highest EU emission standard using tolled roads amounted in January 2005 0.2%, in January 2015 it was 91.5 %.

share of emission classes Jan. 2015

Euro 0 + 1: 0.05% Euro 2: 0.2 % Euro 3: 4.0 %

Euro 4: 4.2 %

Euro 5 + 6 ,EEV 1: 91.5 %Source: Toll Collect


Daehre-Commission

The strong winters 2010 and 2011 made the continuing neglect more and more obvious for the public.

In January 2012 the “Conference of State Transportation Ministers” and the German Federal DOT jointly appointed a political

commission “Future of Financing the Transport Infrastructure”.

The financing gap compared to the actual budgets /budget-plans was calculated to be “at least” 7.2 billion Euros per year (in prices and costs of 2012) for the next 15 years.

The commission decided to prepare a “tool-box” containing various instruments for solving the financing problem – including all steps on the way to a comprehensive road-pricing.

Members demanded, the commission should not express any preference for additional direct user financing in the road sector.


Bodewig-Commission

In spring 2013 the conference of state transportation ministers appointed a commission named “Sustainable Transport Infrastructure Financing”. Members were the same, as those of

the preceding commission.

The commission was requested to prepare recommendations being suitable as a “blue-print” for the expected coalition-contract for

the upcoming legislative period 2013-2017 on Federal level.

Summary of the “Conference of State Transportation Ministers”: “..In future, it must be provided much more money from the tax-revenue collected in the several transportation sectors… As the financing needs cannot be fully satisfied based on the tax-revenues from the transportation sector… additional direct user financing (by trucks) is deemed necessary”.


Car-Vignette for foreigners

During the 2013 federal election-campaign the Bavarian Christ Social Union (CSU) claimed over and again:

German car-owners have to pay for the use of roads in foreign countries. Foreign car-owners use German roads (in particular Autobahns) for free. That is no longer acceptable.

In order to make sure, that foreigners adequately contribute to the infrastructure costs a vignette must be introduced for the use of the German Autobahns (100 Euros for one year).

Condition: no German car-owner pays any additional Cent. In order to comply with that, the vehicle tax in Germany will be reduced by 100 Euros.



The approach is neither fair nor logical:

In those European countries, were tolls are collected from for the use of certain roads by cars the residents have to pay the same like foreigners.

A toll for foreign car-owners using German Autobahns would have to be paid as well by residents of countries where no road-tolls are collected.

The vehicle-related tax-burden of German car-owners does not exceed the average tax burden of residents from other EU member

countries.

The share of foreign cars using German Autobahns amounts to only about 5 %. The transaction-system however will have to include 100 % of the users.


MBUF, main roads (mainly nationwide)

1 Croatia

2 France

3 Macedonia

4 Italy

5 Norway

6 Portugal

7 Serbia

8 Spain

Vignette, main roads (mainly nationwide)

9 Austria

10 Bulgaria

11 Czech Rep.

12 Germany (planned)

13 Hungary

14 Latvia

15 Moldova

16 Romania

17 Slovakia

18 Slovenia

19 Switzerland

Local toll obligations

20 Albania

21 Belarus

22 Belgium

23 Bosnia/Herz.

24 Denmark

25 Great Britain

26 Greece

27 Iceland

28 Ireland

29 Lithuania

30 Montenegro

31 Netherlands

32 Poland

33 Sweden

34 Turkey

Car toll in Europe > Vignette – MBUF – Facilities / Urban

No tolls for cars: Andorra, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Ukraine, Vatican City (10)

Source: tolltickets


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ros

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DK NO IE NL BE MT FI PT AT IT SE DE EL FR UK HU ES CH SK SI BG LU PL LV CZ CY LT EE RO

country

Av. amount of duties middleclass car 2009 : VW Golf 1,6 - Otto

purchase tax mineral oil

energy tax

insurance

vehicle tax

purchase tax vehicle

licence fee

Average duties for a representative middle-class car in Europe

Germany



The history of the announcements and the produced papers can hardly be topped in terms of absurdity:

Regarding the wording the minister changed to “Infrastructure charge”.

Regarding the roads to be tolled, he first changed from Autobahns to all roads, then to all Federal Highways. Meanwhile: for foreigners Autobahns, for residents all Federal Highways.

Regarding the price for a vignette was stated a direct coupling to the variation of vehicle taxes based on German law.


Truck-tolling in Germany – next steps

July 1, 2015: expansion of tolling HGV’s (≥ 12 tons) to additional 1.100 km Bundesstrassen (Federal Highways 2.class)

October 1, 2015: expansion of tolling HGV’s to load classes ≥ 7 tons maximum total weight

July 1, 2018 (?): expansion of tolling trucks (≥ 7 tons) to all Federal Highways (about 40,000 km Bundesstrassen + 12,000 km Autobahns)


Charging of HGV’sin the EU – 2012

Source: EU Directorate forMobility and Transport 2012


Car tolling in Germany – next steps

January 1, 2016: introduction of the “Car-vignette for foreigners” for the use of Autobahns (net revenue at best 0.5 Billion Euros); forcible collection of the “infrastructure charge” from residents, formal revenue 3.7 Billion Euros, compensated for on the vehicle- tax side; “revenue” earmarked for the road-infrastructure.

Further steps ? Most politician, representatives of lobbyist- organisations and ministries admit having two opinions: official: against ! unofficial: in favor !


The term is used for a broad variety of approaches aimed at:

managing mobility, mitigating environmental problems

(caused by transportation), raising money for infrastructure

projects, managing and maintaining transport

infrastructure, maintaining / improving the

structure and livability of urban environments

et cetera

Corresponding terms

Congestion Charge Congestion Tax Urban Road Pricing Urban road user charging Cordon Pricing Area Pricing Area Licensing Central Area Cordon Pricing Environmental Pricing Low emission Zones Limited Traffic Zone Toll rings / (multi) cordons Toll zones…

“Congestion Pricing” / Urban road user charging


European cities operating urban road user charging:

(1) Bergen (N) 1986 / 2004(2) Rom (I) 1989 / 1998 / 2001(3) Bologna (I) 1989 / 2005(4) Oslo (N) 1990 / 2008 / 2012 (5) Tromsoe (N) 1990 / 2004 / 2008(6) Trondheim (N) 1991 / 1998 / 2003(7) Kristiansand (N) 1992(8) Stavanger (N) 2001(9) Durham (GB) 2002(10) London (GB) 2003(11) Namsos (N) 2003(12) Toensberg (N) 2004(13) Florence (I) 2004(14) Stockholm (S) 2006 (trial) / 2007(15) Valetta (Malta) 2007(16) Milan (I) 2008 (17) Gothenburg (S) 2013

European cities having participated in EU urban road user charging programs, but did not (yet) introduce a scheme:(1) Amsterdam(2) Belfast(3) Bristol (4) Copenhagen(5) Edinburgh(6) Genoa(7) Helsinki(8) Leeds

Cities actually considering the introduction: Athens, Budapest, Prague


Urban road user chargingCongestion pricing

Europe 2015


Thank YouThank You

Dr.- Eng. Andreas KossakKossak Research & Consulting

Moorweg 7kD – 22453 Hamburg

Phone: +49 (0)40 553 24 58Fax: +49 (0)40 553 65 59

E-Mail: [email protected]

1 dr. andreas kossak, hamburg, d road pricing / congestion pricing germany / europe background +...

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